Hop To It - Advance 2

[Heyu]

Three Weeks after the ARK Incident.

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The first thing Gamma noticed when he awoke was… that he was awake. He honestly never expected that.

He did not doubt that Tails would try his best, but he did not think it would be possible to reactivate him without a Mobini power source.

His optics came on with a start, and with it came his HUD, allowing Gamma to properly interface with his internal systems and run a thorough check on everything. All seemed to be well… there was a flashing ERROR message in the space where his Flicky’s biometric data was meant to be displayed, and yet his power was at optimum capacity.

“Did it work? Is he in there?”

“He should be… I could have sworn that I did it right, let me see…”

Gamma minimized his self-analysis and looked out at the world around him. He was standing in a mechanic’s workshop, though not the one he expected, and Tails and Amy Rose were looking up at him expectedly.

“...I am awake. I am glad to see you.”

Amy cheered. She jumped up and latched onto his chest in a hug, while Tails sighed in relief.

“Oh, thank goodness… I’ve been so worried.”

Gamma checked his chronometer, and was mildly surprised at the date. “I have been inactive for… nearly four months?”

“I’m sorry it took so long,” Tails said, rubbing his neck. “But stuff just kept happening, and getting you to start without your Flicky was a real challenge, and then the world almost ended--”

The world what? No, disregard. Learn about it later. “Do not misunderstand. I am impressed that it took so little time.” Gamma returned Amy’s hug briefly before plucking her off and setting her back on the ground.

“I’m so glad you’re awake!” Amy declared. “I was really worried when you went to sleep all those months ago. I’ll admit, some part of me thought it would be the last time I saw you!”

Tails gave her a flat look. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” she denied. “It just felt so… final, you know?”

It did. It really, truly did.

He was created to do Eggman’s bidding, a task to which he was uniquely suited. Of course he was; it was what he was built to do. But all it took was a conversation with Amy to realize that there was more to life than servitude, and that keeping innocent animals prisoner for things they could not control was terrible. Gamma made it his mission to destroy the other E-series robots, to free the animals trapped within, in the certain knowledge that his own destruction would be the last. But then Gamma was convinced that death was not required, that he didn’t have to cease to exist for his bird to go free.

Gamma didn’t want to die. He simply saw it as necessary. Now that he was back, and the future sprawled out in front of him… what was his purpose?

A puzzle for another time. “Where are we?”

“We’re in Tails’ lab in Emerald Town,” Amy said, walking over to the nearest window and opening the curtains. Light streamed through, and Gamma went to look out. A cute neighborhood sat outside. Colorful houses, well-trimmed grass and painted fences. Just across the street from the lab was--

Gamma reviewed the image in front of him, but Analytics insisted that what he was seeing was, in fact, the truth. “...Tails, the house across the street bears an uncanny resemblance to your head.”

The eyes were windows and the door was the mouth. It even had his ears.

Tails smiled proudly. “Good, isn’t it? I designed it myself!”

“...Why?”

“So that everyone knows I live there, of course,” the young fox said, as though it was obvious.

Amy rolled her eyes, smiling indulgently. “It’s definitely you, Tails. Not like it could be anyone else…”

Gamma hummed, pleased. He felt… like himself, which was a surprise. Without the Flicky to share thoughts with, he hadn’t been sure that he would feel things. Emotions. He was not programmed with them innately, they developed over time. He had assumed that the Flicky was the source of them, and yet he was… happy, to see Amy and Tails again. Seeing Tails’ head-shaped house amused him, an emotion he enjoyed.

He was also worried, and placed a hand on his chest. “Might I ask… If you removed the need for a Flicky, what is powering me now?”

Tails perked up, turning and flying off before returning with a large mirror that he propped against a table. “Open up your access hatch and see for yourself!”

Bemused, Gamma complied. His chassis swung open. A pink gemstone sat in his battery compartment, encased in the same green energy field that imprisoned his previous power source.

“A Chaos Emerald?” Gamma observed, shocked. “I am flattered, but such a thing is far too valuable to waste on me.”

Amy swatted his leg, hard enough for him to actually feel. “Don’t say that! You’re our friend, Gamma, and that’s worth more than any dumb old rock!”

Friend? Even though they knew each other so briefly? Gamma felt warm.

“And anyway, it’s actually not the real Emerald,” Tails said. “Check it out.”

The fox hovered up and grabbed the Emerald’s containment field, pulling it partially out of place so as to tilt it towards the mirror, and in the process revealed the square top.

“This is one of three artificial Chaos Emeralds in existence!” Tails said proudly. “Humi and I invented them not long after you shut down, actually! One is--” He paused. “I think we might have left it on the ARK actually, we should probably try and retrieve it, huh. Anyway, the other is powering Iota, and you have the third! Well, the second, actually, but that’s not really important…”

Tails continued talking, explaining the mechanics behind the artificial chaos emeralds, while Gamma gently took the gem back from him and raised it up to look at. As long as it stayed close and within the containment field, he still received power from it.

It was pink. The exact same shade as Amy’s quills, his first friend. And the same color as his Flicky, too… A coincidence? Intentional on Tails’s part? Or fate? Gamma had little opinion on the topic of fate, but he vividly remembered the visions Tikal showed him--

“Did you say Iota?” he asked suddenly, interrupting Tails in the middle of explaining how the gem was made. Extrapolating. “E-108 Iota?” The badnik was intended to be a search-and-destroy specialist, with a primary focus on Sonic and his allies. Iota was never finished, and Gamma vaguely remembered hearing that… Humi, the mouse, had taken his head as a trophy.

Amy nodded. “Yep! Tails and Humi rebuilt him from just a head and reprogrammed him, and he helped us out on the ARK. He’s Y-Iota now.” She grinned and gave him a wink. “He was really looking forward to meeting his big brother.”

Brother. Yes. Gamma liked the idea of that. “That sounds nice. I would like to meet him as well.”

Humi. That was the mouse, he remembered. And she would be with the hare, Heyu, the one who convinced him to live. Maybe…

“Great!” Amy cheered. “C’mon, we can go right away!”

“Not quite yet,” Tails said. “I’ve got to do a few tests to make sure everything is working as expected. It shouldn’t take long. An hour at most.” He turned toward a doorway. “I’m going to call Heyu and let him know we’re coming! Amy, why don’t you start telling Gamma what he’s missed?”

“I would like that.”

Amy blinked. “Oh, wow. Um. I guess I should start with Tails getting a Chaos Emerald from the mayor…

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[Heyu]

“...sure. Yeah, that’s great actually. You haven’t been by to visit yet, this’ll be great.”

I looked out of the kitchen into the living room. It was still completely empty.

“...Oh, yeah, no, it’s no trouble. How soon do you want to come? …Tomorrow, huh? No, that’s fine. We’re still, uh, decorating, so it’s a little bare.”

The room I’d decided would be my study/library was likewise empty. A stack of books had been moved in and shoved into a corner. No desk, no shelves. The other two rooms were… yeah.

We went to get groceries that second day back, but none of us really felt the need to leave again after that. The old building was now better insulated against the outside and was furnished enough, and Humi and I had no intention of moving our sleeping area out of the loft, so we just… hadn’t bothered? Getting furniture?

But a guest bedroom would be nice for visitors. Tails had his space nearby, but Amy was still looking for a new home last I heard and it would be polite to offer her a bed… not to mention that we only had the one easy chair. No couch, no TV, no nothing. 

We were ill-equipped for receiving guests.

“What?” I blinked, refocusing on the phone. “Yeah, Tails, uh… Tomorrow is fine. I can’t wait to properly meet Gamma; we didn’t really get the chance to talk much last time. Yeah. Okay, see you soon.”

I hung up the phone and counted to five.

Then I turned on my heel and ran into the warehouse. “Humi! Iota! Time for furniture shopping!”

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[Humi]

Humi groaned. She didn’t want to be in the city. She wanted to be home tinkering with her G.U.N. drone scrap. She’d almost found enough working parts among the crates to rebuild a complete Hunter drone. She didn’t know what she was going to do with it yet, but she wouldn’t be able to find out here.

“Why do we have to get a bunch of furniture now?” she asked again, turning over in the wagon Iota was dragging along behind him. It was a small freight wagon owned by the train station that they were being allowed to borrow. One of the wheels was wobbly, and Humi was already digging through her pocket to see if she had anything to fix it.

“Like I said the last time you asked,” Heyu said, not slowing down. “Tails, Amy and Gamma are coming over tomorrow and we need to have the house presentable.”

That explanation was as unsatisfying as the last time Humi heard it. “But Tails won’t care.” She paused. “Amy might, but she won’t say anything, and I don’t think Gamma would even know enough to be bothered.”

Heyu looked unimpressed, but it was Iota who responded.

“Rationale: A good impression is important, Humi.” His head swivelled to look back at her. “This is my first time meeting my brother. I would like it to go well.” Iota paused as they passed a flower shop. “...Heyu, they have lemon tree saplings on sale.”

Heyu raised the brim of his hat to look at him. “I thought you wanted to stick to native plants for the garden?”

“Perhaps around the edges,” Iota hedged. “I do not like the typical manicured, lifeless lawn, but something useful would be nice. And lemons smell nice.”

“...You can smell?”

“Sure he can,” Humi said, grinning. “He smells right now, didn’t you notice?”

Heyu rolled his eyes with a groan, but he was smiling.

“Why are you wearing that stuff, anyway?” Humi asked. “Didn’t Big say the hat was for Iota?”

Heyu had elected to leave behind his normal yellow vest. Today, while they explored the city, he was wearing a black vest over a faded shirt for a band Humi had never heard of, sunglasses, and the big floppy straw hat Big gave them as a housewarming gift. He’d even put on pants.

Heyu grimaced. “...According to Ringo, we were on the news with regards to the whole… ARK… thing. I don’t really want to be recognized, not until the next crisis happens and people forget.” He looked forward. “I don’t like when people I don't know… uh, know I exist,” he finished vaguely. “I’m glad I don’t have candy-colored fur like some folks do…”

Humi took a moment to absorb that. “...So you aren’t worried people will see a tall rabbit with a mouse in a patchy dress and a blue badnik-looking robot and realize it’s you? We were probably in that video too.”

“Rebuttal: Perhaps not me, as I was the camera.”

“...” Heyu didn’t answer. “Where the heck is that furniture store?”

“Perhaps it relocated after the reconstruction,” Iota offered.

“Maybe.”

Humi’s stomach rumbled. “Can I have a peppermint?”

“Sure.” Heyu reached for his waist. But he wasn’t wearing his belt with the pouches. Next his hand went to his vest pockets… but it wasn’t his normal vest. “...Uh…”

“You didn’t leave the money in your other pants, did you?”

“Don’t be silly, I don’t have another pair of pants.” He did check though, and patted the pocket where his wallet was sitting. “We can get a snack, though.”

They slowed down before coming to a stop on the corner. They were getting closer to the tourist trap part of the Square, and the sidewalks were getting crowded.

Humi jumped out of the wagon onto Iota’s shoulders, climbing further up onto his head for a better view. “...Hey, I know where we are. Isn’t that place you worked at near here?”

Heyu winced. “It is, yeah… I’ve been kind of avoiding it. But, I guess it’ll be fine to go in and get something to eat.”

“Sounds like a plan!”

“This will be interesting.”

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[Heyu]

I looked up at the storefront. The door was locked and the lights were off, and the big sign was gone. A few shelves still stood, visible through the windows, but nothing was on them. The building might have been repaired, but it was empty and lifeless.

Invent-Tory’s was gone.

I stared at it for what felt like several minutes, as though if I waited long enough I’d see Tory in there, milling about and restocking.

“Huh.”

I can honestly say I didn’t expect this. Tory was a true workaholic. She worked twelve-hour shifts six days a week. She practically lived in the store; it was her entire life. And I know she got out of the Chaos Incident mostly unscathed because I remembered pulling her out of the drowned bus myself. I wonder what could have possibly made her not reopen the shop.

I wasn’t loyal to the job or anything--I never wanted to be a cashier forever--but Tory was a decent enough boss and I rarely had problem customers. It was simple work that paid enough for me to get by and let me have my evenings free. It was a little upsetting to see it like this.

I heard Humi and Iota shuffle next to me.

“...Welp,” I said, clapping my hands. “Guess getting my old job back is out of the question.”

I turned and marched back the way we came, the others following behind me.

“I hope that ferret lady is okay,” Humi said.

“Mm,” I grunted, agreeing. Probably best not to think about it. Maybe I would see her around town and I’d catch up with Tory then.

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We ended up walking around Station Park. There were some more shops around here, but still no furniture. I was starting to get annoyed, because the more time we took to buy the stuff the less time we’d have to assemble it all. We did make note of some new places, though; another garden shop, a pet store we had to drag Iota away from, a hardware store, some sort of electronics outlet that I made a note of in case we weren’t able to find a television when we finally found the store we were looking for, and finally, a food truck, manned by a large reptilian Mobian.

Humi never got her food, and it was noon now, so lunch was sounding pretty good.

“Hey, man,” I greeted, walking up to the window facing the park. “What kind of food do you serve?” I looked to the side while I waited for him to respond, and then I looked again. The front of the truck, which I was only just now able to see, was shaped like an alligator’s head. The windshield made up the eyes.

The proprietor turned to face me, propping his hands on the counter and grinning. He looked exactly like the front of his car, down to the dark green scales and the sunglasses mimicking the window. He was wearing a nametag that said: Fry. “Hi! What do I got? I got pancakes, corn cakes, flapjacks, apple jacks, eggs benedict, eggs over-easy, hash browns, hash brown 2: casserole edition--”

He listed them on his fingers, going on and on.

I raised my hand, cutting him off. “Do you have anything that isn’t breakfast?”

He paused, looked over his shoulder at the kitchen, then back at me. “I could probably knock together, uh, toast. A grilled cheese, maybe.”

I shrugged. “Humi, tell the man what you want.”

She peered at the menu by the window. “Can you do an omelette with bacon and cheese? Extra cheese?”

The gator snapped his fingers. “Can do! What about your tall friend?”

Iota looked around. He pointed at himself. “Do you mean me?”

“Yeah!”

“I am a robot, I do not eat.”

“Really? I thought you were going to a convention or something.” He turned around. “Gimme ten minutes, I know I’ve got bacon but I can’t remember where I put it…”

“Aren’t you getting anything, Heyu?”

“Yeah, a grilled cheese is fine.”

The gator gave a cheesy grin and retreated back into the truck. A second later, he turned a radio inside up loud.

We took a seat on a nearby bench while the food cooked. Humi decided to pass the time by taking apart some unidentifiable device in her pocket, so I turned to Iota. “Can you actually smell things?”

“I can detect a variety of distinct scents, yes,” he confirmed. His camera eyes unfocused. “...File history suggests that it predates my reconstruction. Purpose for this function: unknown. But I know I like how lemons smell.”

I frowned thoughtfully, checking my wallet. “...We’ll see how much we end up spending. I kind of like the idea of a fruit and veggie garden in our yard.”

We lapsed into silence. The song on the radio ended, and the DJ introduced the next track as being by “a young up-and-comer” from Central City, which caught my attention briefly. Something something Cosmo? It was probably nothing. I’ll catch the name next time.

Good tune, though.

Station Square was always busy, but the park and surrounding areas usually weren’t. It wasn’t part of the tourism industry, that was all the casinos, the beaches, and the theme park. This area was for the people who actually lived here. That being said, the streets seemed a little busier than I was used to. In the ten minutes it took for Fry to cook our food, I saw dozens of people go in and out of the nearby shops.

It was odd. No one was visiting the food truck.

At ten minutes on the dot, Fry returned to the window and rang a little handbell. “Come and get it!”

“You know,” I said, after handing Humi her food and giving Fry the money, “I don’t remember seeing you around here before.”

“Oh, are you local?” Fry asked. “Yeah, I go wherever. I’ve only been in town for, mm, two days? I think?”

That was a very small number to be uncertain of, and I said so.

“Ha! Yeah… I drove for thirty-six hours straight to get here and then passed out before I could check in to my motel. I think I slept for two days, because I was hungry when I woke up, and then, of course, I had to restock…” he trailed off. “I’m probably moving on again soon. Not doing good business here.”

I nodded, not really sure how to respond to that. “Maybe you should try the theme park?”

He waggled his hand. “Ehhhhh. Yeah, that would probably make sense. Maybe.”

I looked to see how Humi was doing, and saw her back at the bench digging in to her omelette, with gusto. I took a bite of my sandwich, and it was pretty good. Though to be fair, it was hard to mess up a grilled cheese. “This is probably silly, since you’re so new, but you wouldn’t happen to know where a furniture store is, would you?”

Fry raised an eye ridge at me. “Ain’t you a local?”

“More or less, but things have moved around a lot recently.”

He shrugged. “Well, good news, I passed one on my way in!”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’s right over there.”

He leaned out of the window to point to his left, my right. Across the street behind his truck, visible over the snout of his truck, was a large shop with a logo consisting of the name of the store sitting on top of a bed.

My ears dropped. “...Huh.”

Fry grinned like only crocs and gators can. “No need to thank me.”

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In the end, we bought a sofa, a desk, a TV stand and some chairs, a single bookshelf, and that was all that fit in the wagon, so we had to call that good enough. I had to convince Humi that we didn’t need one with a built-in sound system when she could just build a better one anyway. Since she was interested in it though, we went to a music store next.

Humi picked some kind of heavy metal CD, and then I made her put it back in exchange for one that wasn’t labelled explicit. Iota, to my mild surprise, chose a freeform jazz album. Nothing I’d ever heard of, but it would probably be interesting. As for me, I gravitated towards the feature table; I didn’t really keep up with popular music or follow anyone in particular, so I just scanned the track lists for something I recognized. I did eventually find an extremely recent one with a white-haired black man on the cover. 

Jet Set: The Professor’s Picks, said the title. I vaguely knew who he was, he was a pretty popular DJ; in fact, I think his station was the one Fry was tuned into. On the back was a variety of songs, almost half of them arranged by the DJ himself, though one track stuck out to me: ‘Lazy Days,’ by Cosmo the Parrot.

“Huh,” I said to myself. “Good for him.”

With three new purchases in tow, plus a lemon tree sapling, we finally loaded all our purchases onto the train and took them back home.

The rest of the day was a scramble to get everything in place, put everything together, and arrange it to our mutual liking. The living room was simple, but placing some of Humi’s more artful junk around and on the walls made it feel a little more lived-in.

Hmm, we probably need to grab some paint next time, too. The white walls were boring.

It was after dinner that we finally got everything as ready as we could, and I was happy with the result, even if it wasn’t done. We ate dinner together watching a movie on our new TV, ready to tackle the next day.

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[Gamma]

Gamma was very large. He could not fit in Tails’ plane, and his flight mode was not suited to long-range travel. Ultimately, Tails flew his own way to his workshop while Gamma and Amy boarded a train to Station Square. It was cramped in the passenger car.

He was the subject of many stares. He expected this. Not all of them were hostile, which was a pleasant if confusing surprise.

“It’s probably thanks to Iota,” Amy mused when he mentioned this. “He’s pretty friendly, after all, and he was kind of on the news.” She beamed. “Or it could be that you’re with me~.”

Gamma was unable to speculate. “...Amy. Have you encountered the Flicky family since we last met?”

The pink hedgehog blinked. “Huh? You mean Birdie, Pinky and Gray? No, they took off after you shut down.”

Gamma nodded and faced forward once more. There was a family of three sitting across from them. The child was staring at his weapon. Gamma covered it with his hand.

When they arrived at Station Square, Heyu, Humi, Big and another robot were waiting for them.

Amy rushed out the second the doors opened and gave Big a hug, before greeting the other two as well.

Gamma stared at the machine that purported to be Iota. The original Iota would have looked very similar to himself. The same size, the same pattern, probably a different color. Not blue, as that was already taken by Delta. This one was smaller, standing at the average human height. It was symmetrical in build, with two hands and no guns, and colored blue and tan. Rather like Sonic, in fact. It was very clearly E-series inspired, but distinctly off-model.

Iota stared back. Neither spoke.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you again,” Heyu said, drawing Gamma’s attention. The hare shook Gamma’s hand.

“It is a pleasure to be met,” Gamma said honestly.

The mouse clambered onto the hare’s shoulders. “Is Tails with you?”

“He went ahead,” Amy explained. “He’ll probably be waiting for us at Mystic Station.”

Humi’s expression flattened. “...There’s no way he didn’t get there before we left for here. And he didn’t say hi?”

Heyu chuckled and ruffled her fur. Gamma looked back at Iota. Their faces were equally unreadable, but the way the smaller robot tapped his fingers together seemed nervous.

“...Hello.”

Gamma beeped. “Hello.”

Heyu clapped. “Okay, great. We all remember where the Mystic line is, right? Let’s go on and--” His ears twitched and he stopped, turning to look at something. A young woman with blonde hair. “...Okay, nevermind. Keep catching up. I’ll be right back.”

The hare wandered off to deal with whatever that was, while Humi, Amy and Big grouped together to talk. Leaving the two robots.

Iota’s optics followed Heyu for a moment before returning to Gamma.

They stood in silence.

…Iota finally spoke first. “Hesitant: Do you still prefer to go by E-102?”

Gamma considered the question. “...That is right, you are now called Y-Iota.”

“Correct.”

“What does the Y stand for?”

Iota relaxed slightly, chuckling. “It’s unclear, actually. Humi named me, and she has a penchant for wordplay. She’s built a mech called the Y-Nought, and is planning a communication device she wants to call the Y-Mi. As for what it actually stands for, it could be anything, really.”

“I see.” He did not see. Gamma understood wordplay as an abstract concept but had no experience with it personally.

Iota fidgeted, then began walking in the direction of the Mystic Station transfer line. Gamma followed, idly noting that the others drifted after them as they went.

“Admission: I admire you greatly, you know,” Iota said. When Gamma looked at him, Iota went on. “I have a great love of nature, you know, and hearing about you turning your back on everything you were built for to save the animals? It is inspiring, I admit. I hope someday to have such conviction myself.”

It took a moment to put together a response. “...I am uncertain that it can be called conviction. I recognized a wrong, and sought to correct it.” He looked up and out through a window, where a pair of seagulls could be seen flying above. “...I thank you for the kind words.”

“You sell yourself short,” Iota insisted.

They arrived at the line and stood by to wait. “Iota… Do you know your purpose?”

The blue goodnik looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

“I was created with a purpose. I existed to aid Dr. Robotnik in his plans, to destroy Sonic, to capture a frog… my purpose was to obey. And then I denied my creator. I took a new purpose, freeing the animals, and then… it was complete.”

Somewhere in the building a train blew its whistle. Some passersby stopped to stare at them, pointing at Gamma before hurrying away.

Iota produced a beeping sound. “Purpose… I was not built with one. Humi constructed me to be her friend, a task which I am happy to comply with, but she wanted me to be me, and nothing more. I am slowly finding my own meaning; I have fished with Big, explored space, and have taken up gardening. Some things I have enjoyed, some I haven’t, but I am greater for having experienced all of it. And I am still young; come to that, so are you. Both of us are less than a year old, as it happens. We have time to find our purpose. One that we gave ourselves.”

Gamma took several long moments to parse that. Long enough that Iota felt the need to speak again.

“As stated, I have taken up gardening. I have set a goal for myself. What is a goal you would like to work towards?”

Gamma thought about birds. “I believe… I would like to find those birds again. Birdie, and Gray, and… Pinky. I would like to see that they remain free and happy. I would like to see them again.”

Iota startled him by placing a firm hand on his shoulder. “A fine goal. Now: Have you considered asking Tails or Humi to replace your gun with another hand?”

Before Gamma could respond to that, Heyu arrived, looking disgruntled. “Sorry for the wait, everyone. Ms. Gildenhall wanted to tell me something. Also, Gamma? The local news wants to interview you. They remember the ‘hero badnik’ that saved a bunch of people.”

Iota patted his shoulder once more before dropping it. He beeped again. “Heyu, is Gamma going to fit in the tram?”